Four Indian business leaders — Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, PNC Menon, Vineet Nayar and Ronnie Screwvala — have figured in this year Forbes’ list of Asia-Pacific’s most remarkable “givers”.
The annual list of Heroes of Philanthropy, compiled by Forbes Asia magazine, features 48 people from the the Asia-Pacific region, including China, Singapore, Hong Kong and Indonesia.
The magazine listed Indian biotechnology major Biocon’s founder and chief Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw as one of “the most notable givers”. Shaw has been working to improve cancer care and has pledged to give away 75% of her wealth to charity.
Other Indians on the list included realty major Sobha Developers’ chairman emeritus PNC Menon, who plans to give away half his estimated $435 million fortune through his family’s charitable arm — Sri Kurumba Trust.
HCL Technologies vice chairman Vineet Nayar sold shares in the outsourcing firm for $24 million last year and the proceeds went mostly to his charity Sampark.
Entertainment mogul Ronnie Screwvala, co-founder of the UTV Group and Walt Disney’s India managing director, also plans to spend $180 million to uplift 1 million villagers in Maharashtra.